It is a day where supporters of abortion rights acknowledge, in some way, the contributions of their local abortion providers (doctors, staff and/or owners). When I was at the National Coalition of Abortion Providers years ago, it was encouraging to see pro-choicers across the country sending flowers, making calls of support or finding other ways to acknowledge the contributions of abortion providers. Until then, there always seemed to be a chasm between those who were “pro-choice” and those who were part of the actual abortion process.

This day – March 10 – was selected as “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” because in 1993 on this date, Doctor David Gunn became the first abortion doctor to be killed by a pro-life activist. Doctor Gunn was approaching the back door of the Pensacola Medical Services, one of the many clinics down south where he worked, when a man named Michael Griffin walked up to him and shot him several times at point blank range. Doctor Gunn died instantly. Ironically, there was a gun for protection in David’s glove compartment.

I got the call about two hours later. In many ways, I wasn’t shocked. Those of us in the abortion provider community had seen the harassment, the threats, the stalking, the butyric acid attacks and, yes, the bombings, escalate over the years. We knew it was just a matter of time before someone went all the way and killed one of our doctors. When it finally happened, it was national news, the front story in all the newspapers and the network news.

A year later, someone came up with the idea of using March 10 for something positive, versus wallowing in despair over David’s murder. Instead, it was suggested that one way to honor him was to honor those who followed in his footsteps. So, groups like the Fund for the Feminist Majority and the National Organization for Women got their troops to inundate the clinics with thank you calls and notes. Some actually held vigils outside the clinics with signs thanking those inside. It was all very gratifying and I know that our doctors and clinic staff really appreciated the efforts.

So, today I just want to use my moment to once again thank those doctors who walk into the clinic every day knowing that someone could walk up behind them with a gun. As we saw in the case of the late George Tiller, these doctors can find no sanctuary from the violence. Just imagine for a second the feeling of going to your office knowing you could be gone in an instant. Think about the security guard at the Birmingham All Women’s clinic who walked up the pathway to open up the facility, only to be blown up by an explosive device planted by Eric Rudolph. Or Baird Britton, driving up to The Ladies Center in Pensacola in 1994, seeing Mr. Paul Hill, a regular presence at the clinic, walk up to him with a shotgun, blasting away. I could go on and on.

And these doctors and staff are putting themselves into these life-threatening situations because a handful of women made an appointment at the clinic a few days earlier after making the difficult decision to terminate their pregnancy. No one forced those women to make that call, they did it on their own volition. And, as history has shown us, if these doctors were not there for these women, many of those women would have resorted to other, unsafe measures.

Kudos to the doctors, the staff, the owners and their families for being there.

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40 Responses to “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day”

I appreciate my abortion provider. He helped me in a time of great need.

I went back to him 6 months later for a pap smear, and I had to walk past horrible people screaming at me (they thought I was going to get an Abortion, I don’t know why they thought that) and they did not even know why I was going to the doctors office that day.

I know that our “gyn patients” grew in number to the point that in addition to our “3” abortion clinic days we had to add “2” days that we only saw routine gyn/birth control patients! Women want to make sure they have good medical care for their reproductive needs to make sure they don’t have cancer either cervical or breast..but when you have NO medical ins. and there is not (at the time) a PPC..they have to go some where and the protesters make it very difficult for those women!! But the show time and again..they don’t care about “women’s lives”….

I still think it’s just plain ole voyeurism on their part. They want to be out there staring and yelling at those “dirty women” who have had sex. They know they ain’t accomplishing anything and they dont want to hear that many women are going in to make sure they dont ultimately need an abortion.

As i said before and will keep repeating like a broken record… THIS PEOPLE ARE INSANE!
Before i start participating this blog i never thought that this could happen… That was something kind of in another world to me…
But than, back in 2009 when my daughter had to go to a clinic to have a procedure done because the fetus stop growing and the doctors found out it wasn’t there anymore and she needed to go to a clinic to have a procedure of removal. So, we went on a few places so we could feel the atmosphere and she could feel comfortable going to that particular place. The day we were checking the place, everything was ok. She entered the clinic, talk to the person at the front desk. Nothing was happening. But than when she schedule to come back next day to do whatever she had to do, the front desk lady said to her:
– Listen, if tomorrow when you come there is people outside yelling at you or whatever, don’t pay attention. Just keep on walking.
The lady knew better, sure enough those fanatics were there yelling at my daughter like the stupids they really are. Not knowing that she was there to do something that she never though she would have to do. Suffering for the loss of her baby-to-be… But as a mom i can say this, if that day they had done something towards MY BABY DAUGHTER, i would hunt them down like ducks… Because they can’t just assume that all the women going to the clinics are going there to have an abortion, and even those who are going there to have an abortion, it is NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS…….. Like Pat mention on the post, very well done as always, “And these doctors and staff are putting themselves into these life-threatening situations because a handful of women made an appointment at the clinic a few days earlier after making the difficult decision to terminate their pregnancy. No one forced those women to make that call, they did it on their own volition”.
Pro lifers should be a little bit more human and less stupids… think more before doing so many stupids things that doesn’t count as good actions….

Thank you, Sonia, for sharing that story about your daughter. What I find interesting is that when the clinic said there would be people outside, you didn’t think about going to another clinic. Or did you?

Not really… Because the clinics we saw in the area she lives at was weird, the people that was working there was kind rude, the one we went was the most clean and clinic look like.
We felt “safe” if we can say that.

I also want to acknowledge Emily Lyons the nurse at the Birmingham clinic her life forever changed by “terrorist” Eric Rudolph! Thank you to all the families that live with this possiblity of their family member’s life being in danger everyday NO matter where they are!! Even in church…

Emily is a true heroine. For those of you who dont know, Emily was the nurse at the clinic and she was near the front door that day. She got hit with hundreds of pieces of shrapnel, suffered greatly for many years but spoke out for abortion rights.